accountable for the economic and environmental devastation brought on by the ongoing oil spill in the gulf of mexico, you will be equally alarmed by the supreme court decisi in exxon versus baker, which imposed limits and damages that could be recovered in environmental disasters. time and time again, by the narrowest of margins this activist court has sided with big business over main street america, wiping away protections set in place by years of legal precedent and congressional action. as justice stevens stated in citizen united, i know senator durbin quoted, this i want to give the line that comes aftwards this is justice stevens, essentially five justices were unhappy with the limited nature of the case before us so they changed the case to give them saechbs portunity to change the law. there were principaled narrow paths that a court that was serious about judicial restraint could have taken. i join him in wondering just how and why those who pross to oppose judicial activism have voice third support for these supreme court decisions in which justices have overturned long-standing precedent

vulnerable bigger materials in four years, and convinced several nations including chile, context on, mexico, and ukraine to make commitments such as giving of highly enriched uranium and eapons-grade plutonium. the start treaty signed with registered to the same goal. reducing the world's supply of nuclear material and keeping us all safer. finally, economic pressure is part of the wisse use of strength. we all understand the danger posed by a nuclear iran. president obama's work to engage iran has not been met, as all of us i think what degree, in good faith. but a bit further isolate iran in the eyes of the world, and i believe that it helped secure russian and chinese agreement with the strong sanctions passed this month by the security council. congress is sending its own set of sanctions to the president's desk, which we passed last week. it will hit the iranian regime where it hurts, its petroleum sector. and i hope demonstrate that the cost of their nuclear pursuits are too high to bear. in all, this is a record of keeping america safe, and it is one we can be proud of. but it embodi

brady: i'm pleased to yield one minute to the gentleman from new mexico, mr. teague. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. teague: mr. speaker, i rise today in strong support of the disclose act, a bill i'm proud to co-sponsor. several months ago in the citizen united case, the supreme court made a dangerous decision to allow unlimited corporate and union money into our elections. the consequences of this decision for our democracy are dimplee until we act, massive corporations can secretly funnel hundreds of millions of dollars through shadowy front groups to influence elections. a foreign company like british petroleum could retaliate against members of congress who want to hold them accountable by secretly funding millions in attack ads. f we don't act to stop this injustice, limitless corporate money will flood into our political system and drown out the voice of the american people. debates by candidates will be replaced by ads. some people say this is a free speech issue. of course it is. the court decision lets foreign corporations influenc

they were the only advocacy organization that was exclusively focused on the gulf of mexico. we have board members in all five states. we have been doing independent monitoring of the prices of the containment and cleanup efforts and working to see a more effective response. the key is said we are coming out tear and we are going to see elected straight lines and canals and pipelines. things have been done to the coastal ecosystem. they really benefited the nation. this pipeline did not make new orleans rich, they made the nation rich. the oil and gas in back paleocene from the bp crude oil are significant. they are one piece of the larger crisis that is happening. the oil and gas activity has been happening in the march. >they tried tens of thousands of miles through this ecosystem. saltwater can gain entry into freshwater ecosystems. the other thing that happens is they put it will lend undecided the canal. they put it aside despoil on the side that create a mini levee system. when a storm comes thenin, it ds need the -- it does not leave the march as quickly as it would ot

. >> this is the gulf of mexico here. that is barataria bay. >> i think it is short for a longer name. as i remember way back, that had a longer name that was in transit to the area. >> are they sending any kind of animal efforts in here to try to help some of these pelicans? thank god. thank you very much for your work. >> thank you so much. >> in the past, some of the eggs got messed up and some of the nests got messed up. they are very selective about what they are going after. >> do these people work for bp? >> no, they work for wildlife rescue. >> there could be several movies out of this. >> it is so beautiful and content here. for centuries. they are so gorgeous. and they are uniquely ours. >> i cannot even imagine, even if they are drenched in oil, that their reproductive systems, their digestive systems will not be forever damage. >> why don't we have 30 voteboa? >> why are there not at least 10 boatwright here. just for this pelican island, right here. >> there is nobody here on the water in terms of the recover

you look at the changing demographics and nevada and new mexico and so many of the states. you cannot just look at the past to predict the future. you have to look at who the candidates are, both candidates. this will tell you whether a state is viable. you cannot just look at the past. barack obama fulfill a certain profile at that given moment for virginia. we were the first presidential campaign on tte democrat side that had the resources to outspend republicans in different states. that really mattered. sadly, it mattered. typically, we are behind the funding. we had the opportunity. we were only going to win the states if we dramaaically expanded the electorate. we would not have one. there are 10 staaes that you can look at. if i had a memory i would rattle them off. virginia, north carolina, florida, colorado, indiana that collectively at up to 100 electoral votes. if we did not -- if we had not expend of the electorate especially with young voters, we would not have won ttose states. you can look at it clearly. the voter registration in each of those states and how

we forget by the way that we're on the western and eastern borders of iran and if we had iran in mexico and canada i think we would be going nuts. i think looking at the way they think about al qaeda, i don't think they like them. i don't think they are that interested in dealing with them but i think they look at looer level activity and say you know, they are bleeding our enemy. we don't like them. they did arrest the leadership council in spring, 2003, but i think the story is pretty fuzzy when you go a little bit further down and have an tharne says i don't like these guys but still they are bleeding the enemy. >> please identify yourself. >> suzanne spalding. phil, thank you. that was really outstanding. >> thank you. >> i want to ask a little bit about the domestic threat. first of all, whether you see these smaller scale attempts as, perhaps, some of the tail of the comet, the throes of a dying organization and secondly, what o we do about it and particularly i know you're familiar with the united kingdom's effort. they have a more significant, home grown scaled threat and they a

we know they are closer to 40,000 barrels of oil pouring into the gulf of mexico. my point is that if you are confirmed and become deputy attorney general, we need to make sure this is protected. there should be no government bailout for damages caused by bp oil. we have to have aggressive law enforcement. the department of justice needs to be there with significant amounts of resources to help those property owners, the taxpayers and protect our environment from future generations assessing accurately the damage caused to our environment. will this be the highest priority to the department of justice under your portfolio if you are confirmed to? >> my understanding is that it already is a very high priority. the devastation that has been visited upon the gulf is important to the president, the attorney general, and the people that live down there. every effort as i understand it is addressing all of the issues that you just outlined as very important prerogatives. >> let me thank you for being willing to serve. you have a very distinguished career. your experience

the long string is not an unusual well design in the gulf of mexico. as i under it -- >> say that again. >> the long string is not an unusual design in the gulf of mexico, as i under it. hadllibu they wouldn't proceed this way. others said they wouldn't proceed this way. bp knowingly risked well failure to save a few million dollars, and drilling 18,000 feet below the sea. if you made the mistakes the consequences of those would be catastrophic and in fact turned out to be catastrophic. don't you feel any sense of responsibility for this decision? >> i feel a great sense of responsibility for the accident. >> how about for the decisions that made the accident nor likely? >> we need to determine what were the critical decisions, and -- >> did you get my letter detain review. >> it's >> i've read your letter, chairman. >> we asked you to be prepared to discuss these issue? >> as i said, i've seen the documents following your letter. and i can't past judgment on those decisions. >> even though you've worked 28 years in the oil industry, you're the ceo and

for 33% of the gulf of mexico's exclusive economic zone. as oil continues to flow this yeah is sure tone large further exasperating the economic damage. a recent economic impact study by the american sport fishing association indicated that the enfire gulf were closed to recreational fishing from may through august. leaving $win.win billion of revenue which supports $2.5 billion in total sales, and 18,785 jobs. this is devastating to an area that has already suffered greatly from the aftermath of natural disasters. americans continue be to be frustrated from the lack of solution from all parties involved and i'm interested to hear more about the coordinated efforts between bp and the administration. the economic and environmental magnitude of this disaster necessitates a clear understanding of what went wrong and bp needs ton held accountable for the disaster. i also look forward to having mms and the department of interior before this subcommittee to also for them to answer some tough questioning. i look forward to the hearing, mr. hayward

of b.p., tony hayward is on capitol hill to testify about his company's response to the gulf of mexico oil spill. he'll be at the house subcommittee on oversight and investigations. you can watch it live on c-span 3 and c-span.org beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. for more information about the gulf of mexico oil spill and to watch any of the c-span video on the topic, visit our special oil spill website where you'll find dozens of congressional hearings on the oil spill. it is available now at c-span.org/oilspill. next on c-span, defense secretary robert gates testifies on capitol hill about the defense budget. then members of the senate armed services committee question general david petraeus about the war in afghanistan and later, president obama's meeting at the white house with b.p. executives. >> from tomorrow's -- on tomorrow owes "washington journal," joe wilson and a talk with kathy castor about the gulf oil spill and david michaels on protecting the safety of those working in the clean-up effort. >> this weekend on c pan 2's book tv. growing up between arabs and israelis.

. >> tonight at 8:00, the president will address the nation from the old office on the gulf of mexico oil spill. this is president obama's first oval office address. we'll have live coverage on the cspan network's including cspan radio and c-span.org. "washington journal" is next. we will take your calls. the house of representatives will be in in a couple of hours for a brief morning hours session. later, general david petraeus will update a senate panel on the security situation in afghanistan. our live coverage begins at 10:00 eastern in from the senate armed services committee. coming up this hour, senator byron dorgan will discuss the bp involvement over the gulf oil spill. he serves on the energy and natural resources ommittee. after that, an update on the financial regulation bill. the house senate conference committee will try to work out differences today on the two versions of the bill. versions of the bill.

rise in oil explosion and the consequent oil spill on the gulf of mexico. from london, this is about one- ha hour. >> statement secretary of state. >> thank you, mr. deputy speaker. i welcome you to your pition. the house will wish join me inexpressing our deepest sympathy for tse three very injured in the explosion in the gulff mexico. and for all individuals and communities affected by spilling oil or fearing that thhy wl be affected over the days and weeks to come. our thoughts must be fit with them. on the 20th of april, an explosion and subsequent fir on a drilling rig operated by trans ocean under contract to bp in the gulf of mexico effectivel killed 13 workers. it sank. substantial quantities of oil were leaking into the ocean. the blowout preventer, which should have sealed the leak, failed. the causes of the accident and now -- of t accident are now subject to u.s. presidential commission of inquiry and to civil d criminal investigation. ther has never been such a large fleet of oil so deep in the ssa. attention of the -- attention b bp and the di

that is drilling wells to 10 kilometers in the gulf of mexico. it is beginning to export under the ice in the arctic. >> bp c o tony heyward on the oil spill. c what other government officials have said about the oil spill with more than 100 hearings, and briefings and other programs archived at the cspan video library. it is washington your way. this past thursday, a cspan -pcrew got a tour of an incident command post in louisiana. it oversees all the gulf oil spill response efforts. for the next 35 minutes, we will hear from top-ranking coast guard and bp officials working at the site. >> this is the war room. this is the central room that is providdng the direction and developing the strategic plans for operations that are driving 11,000 men and women who are working from the offshore resource area. once flowed to arrive at the services -- service back to the shoreline, we have ever is to protect the shoreline. this is one of three incident commands that are designed to work a lot part of lake across the gulf of mexico from houma, louisiana wh

we only have 45 days before a major hurricane gets into the -pgulf of mexico. i keep loong athat oil and watch it every day, every morning, coming through the passes. or heritage has taught us to work hard, and we are very resilient. born and raised, watching my mother and father lose everything in 1965, watching my father be elected, saying it's ok, it is just material things. anyone in louisiana can protect anybody from hurricanes. you send me anywhere in the world, give me 10 days, i can make a difference with hurricanes. right now my hands are tied. i am dealing with an oil company. we have no say-so. we have the best equipment that can come into our town. different salesmen. 2,500 salesmen come in through the weeks, and billy can tell you, asking us. but i can tell you one thing. we are not going to give up. as of yesterday, we are bringing barges through our town. i am going to be meeting tomorrow morning in grand isle to make sure they know where to put it. every day i have a mom that comes to me and says mr. david, how am i going to get food to my kids?

>>hen they happen in the past, there is down ocrs within the g mexico. the answer, also, with respect to this particular leak is that it is is one of the issues which secretary and i have insisted there be the capacit it is part of the program. >> let me say that i don't mean that the three of you look awful. when i said that you need sleep. this has been a long period. you have not had a day off. good for you. i think this congress wants to do everything ssiblet can do to be supportive. >> thank you. the folks in theulf are hurting. you all are putting in predijeous numbers of hours at this point. i want to ask you about two policy questions that relate to the report. areas that the report doesn't get into. for the future, it will be lving door between the close the interior department between the oil and gas intusry. there is a specific law goveing the department involving the outer continental shelf oil and gas program. but it doesn't look to me like it's closing the revolving door. got a job with the company that he was inspecting. th segd one i thin

maybe in the arctic but not in the gulf of mexico. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out so you really have to question who is reviewing these things. secondly, mms "houston at of nearly400 offshore found safety investigations, mms collected only 16 fines of 400 investigations. so i know that you're reforming mms. the qution is are we going to have the right regulatory oversight, vigorous oversight so that we don't relive this including on response plans and, lastly, are we in challenge -- there have been some reports that there is another drilling rig near the deepwater horizon called the ocean saratoga that appears toe with a ten-mile-long slick visible from satellite images. it was only discovered because of the images of the deepwater horizon. do you have any information on whether that is, in fact, a spill so kurring and if so what is being done t it? >> let me, senator menendez, i appreciate your comments and i know your passion and views on this for a long time and let me assure you they're taken into considerat

economy and look at the government's response to the gulf of mexico oil spill. "washington journal" is live beginning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. >> no candidate in this race, democrat or republican, has given voters in new hampshire or america more questions or be able to show what they are made of. >> look at the cspan video library which many hours of videos which you can search by name, title, issue, committee, interest group and more available free on line. >> cspan, our public appears content is available on television, radio, and online and you can connect with us on twitter,9(ya facebook, and youte and and sign up for our scheduled alert e-mails @ c- span.org. >> yesterday's , 12 states had run off or primary elections. incumbent blanche lincoln won renomination yesterday. here is her speech last night in little rock, arkansas. >> [cheers and applause] >> you are a great, arkansas. [applause] i cannot begin to thank each and every one of you across this great state for such a Ájob in letting a message out that is loud and clear. [applause] and that messa

offshore drilling in the gulf of mexico supplies 30% of america's domestic energy pruction. most people don't fully realize that. 80% of the gulf's oil, and i did not realize this, comes from operation more than -- in more than 1,000 feet of water, 80%. for this reason, we must continue the safe and secure offshore drilling. it's important to our economy, jobs and national security. mr. president, our communities are hurting. we've got our seafood industry that is basically shut down. hundreds of low-wage workers have lost their jobs. we've got probably almost half of the rental capacity in our beach front properties has been lost -- are beginning to be lost. so it's a national issue. but also we have thousands and thousands of good americans who are working on those rigs every day whose lives are at risk and need to be assures that the production that's occurring is safely done. thank you for allowing me to have these remarks. thank you, chairman leahy, for holding the hearing and inviting me to co-chair it. like you i believe congress must do whatever it can to prevent ano

[applause] the ambassador from mexico is here and we are delighted to have him. [applause] i think the brazilian ambassador arrived. i did not see him personally. [applause] and we have the;djv charged affr from the embassy of south africa. [applause] i hope i have hit everybody i am supposed to. this is a wonderful evening. i want to thank joe gilde nhorn about his gracious remarks. i planned to be here four or five years and have stayed here 11 or 12. one of the principal reasons i have this because i have had the honor to work with joe. i will tell=a you palle loyal je is. he is so low that the wilson center that he is here tonight when his granddaughter is graduate from high school. that is really something we appreciate your leadership. [applause] tonight, we welcomed the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, to the center. he is an academic thinker and a policy maker in the tradition of woodrow wilson. he is a world-class scholar and like wilson, a princeton professor. dr. bernanke has become one of the country's most important and most respected p

the haunting calamity of the gulf of mexico exposes the work we have yet to do on climate change. wall street reform is headed to a conference committee this week as we meet. and today the campaign for america's future will join with move on and credo and open left to present a petition of 50,000 americans, calling on chairman barney frank to fulfill his promise to televise the conference proceedings. we want to bring the wall street lobbyist out of the cloakrooms and into the light of day. now posters talk about an enthusiasm gap. the tea party right is said to be on the march. and independents are increasingly skeptical. the rising electorate you all, the young single women, minorities, and the core obama base has been hit hardest by the recession and is said to be disengaged. if conservatives make dramatic gains this fall as is now predicted all progress will be harder in a country that cannot afford not to make progress. the perpetually canned john boehner and the minority leader in the house and the man who would be speaker made clear the threat at the end of the health care

it's the gulf of mexico, which is a huge body of water. and you don't have the luxury of stone-covered beaches. sortf shell-covered beaches. it's going to be in swamps. it's going to be in all kinds of marsh lands and wetlands and on sandy beaches and you can't pick it up with skimmers. effectively you can't boom it all off. the only real interesting proposal i've seen th with regards of save these wetlands is the state of louisiana to build these sand -- out out of promise. but history teaches us once the oil is spilled, you're not picking it up. host: remember canneine you're on for brian o'neal. caller: hello? hi. i read something the other day, jay pepper asked o'bama at some press conference that there was some 17 countries that offered to help with the cleanup and o'bama only accepted mexics help and norwa -- other countries had started to help with backings, why would we not accept any help to start cleaning this up? or is it even possible to start vacuuming up some oil before it keeps spreading any further? guest: well, a couple of

-mexico border with the former chief of staff for customs patrol. customs patrol.

., on mexico, as you know, there's a lot of concerns and frustration in mexico due to the arizona law on immigration. these have raised due to the death of a migrant worker that was detained by the u.s. border patrol and beaten and shot with a taser. what is the position of the u.s. government with regards with this incident? i understand the mexican government have already sent a diplomatic note about it. >> well, let's separate the two issues. certainly, we are sorry for the loss of life involving anastacio hernandez-rojas. we are in touch with the mexican government. we believe that his family has been paroled into the united states following his death. we have received a diplomatic note from the mexican government. it is being investigated both by dhs and by the police department in san diego. and this obviously represents the challenge of securing the border on both sides, and we are very mindful of the fact that those who try to enter the united states illegally, there is a significant loss of life every year along the border as people endeavor to come here. it's why the adminis

before they can fit that custom-made cap back into place, obviously more oil leak into the gulf of mexico. can you talk about tt scenario and why they did not use it previous? >> i can answer both of those. the riser was never intended for the drilling rig. when the drilling rig lost power, it became a flexed as the vessel moved around and eventually site. it went from vertical to horizontal on the seloor. a big crimp developed at the top of the blowout preventer stack, and then broken several places. anyone that has been watching the live feed has scenes that pike leaking and spewing oil and mud into the gulf. ironically, it reduce the cross sectional area of the drilling riser. the government inks about 20% is reduced. that is what you are going to lose when you cut off the drawing riser. that restriction. you turn the ball two or three turns to a sprinkler, that is the analogy. that was included as an option by the government, as i understand it, one of the earlier purchase three try everything else you can before you allow any additional oil to get into the call. >> that is why they a

coming up, a look at the state of new orleans in the wake of the gulf of mexico oil spill. we will simulcast inside new orleans. our coverage gets underway later today at 1:00 p.m. eastern on a companion network, cspan 2. is the government broken? the brookings institution is hosting a panel discussion posting that problem there they will look at challenges of good governance and talk about ways to strengthen democracy. this gets underway live at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> the treaty before you is an illusion -- is an evolution of agreements that go back to the 1970's and particularly of the series of start agreements that were started at in the reagan administration and continued in some form in every subsequent administration." >> watch the moments that made history on the cspan video library. every program since 1987 is available free online. >> president barack obama was in illinois monday attending a memorial day ceremony. he was about to speak at the abraham lincoln national cemetery when a rainstorm canceled the event. however, the president was able to lay

also a look at the gulf of mexico oil spill. hosted by eric asher. our coverage gets underway at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2. is government broken? the brookings institution is hosting a panel discussion later today asking that question. we'll talk about ways to strengthen democracy. this gets underway live at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> this weekend on book tv's in depth, noted feminist and scholar martha nussbaum. join our three-hour discussion with your phone calls, emails and tweets on book tv in depth on c-span 2. menopause applause >> meryl streep addresses graduates at barnard college. she has received a record 16 academy award nominations. she talks about her background and career. this is about a half-hour. >> dry mouth. wow. thank you, all. thank you, president, president tillman, members of the board of trustees, a distinguished faculty, proud, swelling parents and family, and gorges class of 2010. -- gorgeous class. if you are all really, really lucky, and if you continue to work super hard, and you remember your thank-you note